Short answer: if a public charge won't start — or starts and then stops almost immediately at 0 kWh — the three usual causes are your car's scheduled charging being switched on, your charge card or fob being below its minimum balance, or the charger itself being faulty. Work through them in that order, because the first one catches the most people and is the least obvious.
A charge that starts and then quietly stops feels like a fault, but it usually isn't. Here's how to tell the three apart and fix each.
1. Your car's scheduled charging is on (the hidden one)
This is the cause almost nobody documents, and it's the most confusing — because the session looks like it starts, then stops with no error, having delivered nothing.
Many EVs have a scheduled (or "timed") charging setting: you tell the car to only charge during set hours, usually to catch a cheap overnight electricity rate at home. It's a great habit — it's exactly how you save money charging at home. But here's the catch: that schedule applies everywhere, not just at home. If you pull up to a public charger during the day while the schedule is on, the car authorises the session but then refuses to draw any power, because it's outside its allowed charging window.
The charger sees zero energy flowing, assumes nothing is plugged in properly, and gives up. You get a run of sessions that start and stop at 0 kWh / €0.00.
The fix: turn off scheduled or timed charging for this session. It's usually a toggle on the car's charging screen (sometimes labelled "AUTO" or "scheduled"). Switch it off, start the charge again, and it will pull power normally. Remember to turn it back on at home if you rely on it for the cheap overnight rate. (More on that rate in our cost guide.)
2. Your fob is below its minimum balance
If the charger won't start at all and tells you the card was declined, that usually doesn't mean your fob is broken or your bank card was refused. On a pay-as-you-go fob it almost always means one specific thing: the account behind the fob doesn't have enough balance.
With an EZO fob this is a hard rule, not a guideline: EZO requires a minimum €20 balance on your account before any charge will start — even if you only intend to use a few euro. €19.99 isn't enough; €20 and it goes. It catches a lot of people: you can have €14 loaded, see "declined," and assume the fob is faulty — when really you just need to top up to €20.
The fix: top your account up to €20 or more in the app, then try again — the same fob that was just declined will work. (See the EZO activation steps, which spell out the €20 rule.)
3. The charger itself is faulty
Sometimes it really is the charger. If you've ruled out the two above and it still won't start:
- Unplug and plug back in firmly — a poor connection is a common cause.
- Try a different charger on the same site if there is one.
- Report it — the network's phone number is usually printed on the unit, and reporting a fault helps the next driver.
How to tell which one it is
The symptom usually tells you which layer failed:
- It starts, then stops at 0 kWh (often more than once): that's your car's scheduled charging almost every time. Check the Sessions list in the app — a string of 0.0 kWh / €0.00 entries is the fingerprint.
- It won't start and says "declined": that's a balance problem on the fob — top up to the minimum (€20 on EZO) and retry.
- It won't start and does nothing, or shows a charger error: that points to the charger or the payment method — try contactless or an app, or move to another unit.
One honest note on roaming and support
When a charge fails on a charger you've reached by roaming — say, paying with an EZO fob at an ESB charger — neither support line fully owns the problem. The fob network can't always see the host charger's side, and the host network may not see your roaming session, so you can end up bounced between them. Knowing the three causes above — car, then balance, then charger — often gets you charging faster than either support desk will.
Still stuck, or want a second pair of eyes while you're standing at the charger? Ask Echo in the EvEcho app — we know the car-side, network-side, and roaming causes, and we'll help you work out which one it is.